SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision
Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), announced today an impressive roster of
global licensees for its award-winning Skylanders franchise.
Landmark new relationships with Crayola® and General Mills underscores
the popularity of the Skylanders property and drives the
expansion of merchandising program into new categories. Activision’s
robust licensing portfolio, featuring more than 175 licensees, is set to
deliver meaningful brand extensions for the #1 kids’ video game
franchise in the world1.

“The relationships we have formed with Crayola and General Mills
showcase how strong Skylanders has become in just 27 months,”
said Ashley Maidy, vice president of global licensing and partnerships
for Activision Publishing. “The brand association that comes along with
these category giants expands the property’s reach outside of our
traditional channels worldwide and fosters a deeper connection with our
fans.”

As a result of these collaborations, a number of exciting new products
and promotions will come to market this year, including:

Activision and Crayola will introduce unique Skylanders-branded
color and activity formats. The specialty line will include Crayola’s
signature formats including Color Wonder, Giant Coloring Pages and
Xtreme Coloring, among other new platforms and will be available this
holiday at top retail channels worldwide.

Starting in June, a new promotion with General Mills will
release Skylanders-shaped Fruit Flavored Snacks to fans all over North
America. This relationship marks Activision’s first entry into the
category and will bring six character favorites, including Chompy,
Gill Grunt, Jet Vac, Kaos, Stealth Elf and Eruptor to grocery stores,
supermarkets, drug stores and mass market retailers.

Activision’s rich licensing and promotional announcement comes on the
heels of a successful 2013 for the Skylanders brand. Skylanders figures
outsold all action figure lines worldwide in 2013 for the second
consecutive year, beating out the top three action figure lines combined2.
Having surpassed the $2 billion mark in sales, including 175 million
toys sold worldwide in just 27 months1, Skylanders is now in
the top 20 video game franchises of all time1 and continues
to set benchmarks for the toys-to-life category.

About the Skylanders® Franchise

The award-winning, $2 billion Skylanders franchise pioneered the
toys-to-life category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders Spyro’s
Adventure®. The game originated a new play pattern that seamlessly
bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms and became
the top-selling kids’ videogame of the year. In October 2012, Skylanders
Giants™ further evolved the genre and added the mega-sized Giant Skylanders
and LightCore® characters to the collection of interaction
figures. Skylanders Giants was awarded the “e-Connected Toy of
the Year” at the 13th Annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards. The
franchise’s latest innovation, Skylanders SWAP Force™, launched
in October 2013 and introduced an all new play pattern – swapability.
The game was developed by Vicarious Visions and is rated E10+ by the
ESRB. www.skylanders.com

About Activision Publishing

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc.
is a leading worldwidedeveloper, publisher and distributor of
interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains
operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong and the
region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can
be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.